By ABDULAZEEZ Abiodun[1].

ABSTRACT

No doubt, artificial intelligence is here to stay with us. The world in which we live in keeps changing. Human beings tend to find easy ways of doing things. Technology has being trying to make the world a better place for people to live in with the introduction of novel machines programmed to reduce human labor and improve standard of living. Then, a revolution in the world of technology came about with the introduction of Artificial intelligence which currently influences the modus operandi of certain sectors in different walks of life around the world. In the area of Law, the introduction of Artificial Intelligence, in developed countries, has affected the legal system of these countries. For instance, in civil and criminal procedures of certain jurisdictions, electronic evidence is admissible in court thanks to the influence of Technology and Artificial Intelligence. With all being said, it is nearly impossible for a legal practitioner to do well without technology because of its efficacy, that is, the introduction of Artificial Intelligence into Law has made creation of legal databases easier and portable, communication and processing of a faster and efficient and most important, research of data, easier and reliable.

Presently, artificial intelligence (AI) tends to make legal practice more easier and time saving with the use of the sophisticated machines provided to perform a specific task. It’s that man power might not be needed to some extent again in the legal practice.

Keywords; artificial, intelligence and legal profession.

INTRODUCTION

Due to the unique immunity of the legal industry, the impact of previous industrial and scientific and technological revolutions on the legal profession is always relatively small. From the training of lawyers to the selection of judges, the mode of operation of the legal profession system is still almost the same as that before modern times.

The word artificial is defined as a thing made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, especially as a copy of something natural[2]. While intelligence is the ability to acquire and the apply knowledge and skill. Hence, artificial intelligence, is the ability of a computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. Artificial intelligence can also be defined as an intelligence demonstrated by machine displayed by humans and animals[3]. The term is frequently applied to the project of developing systems endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of human, such as ability to reason, discover meaning, generalized or learn from past experience. According JOHN McCarthy who is regarded as the first person to use the term artificial intelligence defines it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines” in a nutshell, artificial intelligence is the act of allowing computer to do what human beings are supposed to do with the involvement of the term “intelligence”.

Many people think artificial intelligence is a robot which is going to conquer the world in a couple of years due to technologies Advent-ism. Everyday, we wake up seeing new things and development, isn’t that amazing? Artificial intelligence in the legal perspective is the application of man made knowledge with the aid of technology to help in legal profession and judicial administration.

Artificial intelligence and the legal practice

Nigeria is a developing country that has a long way to go in  every aspect. In this 21st century, artificial intelligence is gaining ground in the legal industries and the administration of justice. Many legal practitioners are diverting from the traditional means of advocacy including the court itself. Many lawyers are afraid that this new idea might take up their role in the legal profession. Thus, artificial intelligence may reduce the need of lawyers in the legal industry but not totally because the aim of this artificial intelligence is to perform certain activities to reduce the labor in   practice and also enhance the works of lawyers, thereby making their works easier, faster, more efficient, effective and thorough.

It is obvious that artificial intelligence will boost and increase the skills of lawyers and their sense of judgement. The work that will take much time of a lawyer can now be done by the artificial intelligence within a specific time and even be more accurate than human being, thereby saving the time of lawyers and also making legal service easier and faster in all senses.

Since the legal profession is never stagnant as it keep on changing and developing, hence, artificial intelligence will indeed become a tool for the development of the legal industry.

Ever since the dawn of history, man has been imbued with the proclivity to finding better ways of doing tasks[4]. It is therefore no exaggeration to say that innovation has been a product of the society. From time immemorial, advancement has been a vital tool to achieving efficiency in professions tasks, law practice cannot take exception. Prior to covid19 pandemic, there are bedeviling the Nigeria legal practice which serves as impediments to its sustainability. Ranging from slow delivery of judgement, access to justice, poor legal representation etc.

Factually speaking, aside time bound cases which need to be heard for the exigency of time, Nigeria supreme court is yet to adjudicate appeal filed before it since 2008, till date, with cases pilling up every day-by-day, and existing problems to wit: under –staffing, orthodox method of adjudication and more plaguing the judicial system, its becoming glaringly undeniable that it’s time we stepped up our game and embrace human assisted machine in this vital sector that forms the fulcrum of development in every society. The following summary describes some of the major categories and examples of such applications.

  1. Legal Analytic s

Legal analytic use big data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence to make predictions from or detect trends in large data sets. legal analytic is very important in administration of justice, Ravel law recently purchased by Lexis-Nexis, uses legal analytic of judicial opinions to predict how specific judges may decide cases, including providing recommendations on specific precedents and language that may appeal to a given judge. Law professor Daniel Katz and his   predictive model for the outcome of Supreme Court decisions. Another example is Lex Machina, this use legal analytic to predict trends and outcomes in intellectual property litigation, and is now expanding to another types of complex litigation.

  1. Practice Management Assistants

A lot of technology companies and law firms are partnering to create programs that can assist with specific practice areas, including transactional and due diligence. Litigation research bankruptcy and preparation, real estate and many others. Most law firms use technology in carrying out their research and which really help to deliver what is expected of them. Many lawyers are aware of the new development in town and they are making reasonable efforts in making sure that they follow the sequence.

  1. Legal Decision Making

Artificial intelligence helps in making judicial decision in many ways. Judicial system come with a lot of hard work and the application of the principle of law in factual scenario[5]. Now with the aid of artificial intelligence which opens the door to use multiple sophisticated artificial intelligence system in making decision and in sentencing process in the future. A number of online dispute resolution tools have or are being developed to completely circumvent the judicial process. Nigeria government can come up with something reasonable under the artificial intelligence by providing machine learning legal portals to provide free legal advice on civil law matters to people who cannot afford to hire lawyers.

  1. Legal research

Artificial intelligence promised to promote legal practice in terms of legal research, no doubt that the way legal research is being carried out today compare to yesterday, there is a clear difference with the aid of technology, research can be done any time anywhere without stress. The future of the legal system is very clear that with artificial intelligence, things will surely get better in terms of legal research and all. lawpavillion, NWLR online etc, have greatly increase the level of legal research. Also other online platforms that provide index of laws in Nigeria like Lawyard, law Nigeria etc.

  1. Creation of legal Bots

Many firms are aware of the artificial intelligence (AI) which must of them are already in it while some are planning to. Most firms now understand the importance of artificial intelligence in legal profession. Many of them have developed a workable software online which help a client to solve problems pertaining to legal issues and give advice even without lawyers and the response will be accurate because it is being programmed by a programmer to perform a specific task.

  1. Gathering of legal materials

There are some machines that can be use for gathering of legal materials, store materials and also process them since it have been programmed which makes the work of the lawyers easier and faster in the legal practice. It is obvious that human get tired when over worked but the artificial intelligence will never get tired unless it faulty because they are not human beings.

Legal data based are the collection[6] of mutually related legal information involving cases, legislation, journals, articles and texts.

The future of artificial intelligence and the legal practice

Technology is driving the world to a better place and we are following the sequence. Artificial intelligence is one of the driving tools in the legal profession, for example most of the law firms and the court are now adopting the use of artificial intelligence in dealing with cases. Artificial intelligence represents both the biggest opportunity and potentially the greatest threat to the legal profession since its formation. The trans-formative impact of artificial intelligence on legal practice will continue to accelerate going forward. Artificial intelligence will take over a steadily increasing share of  law firm billable hours, be applied to an ever expanding set of legal task and require knowledge and ability outside the existing skill set of most current practicing attorneys. Will artificial intelligence take over the role of lawyers’ in legal practice?. It is highly possible that artificial intelligence will most likely take over in legal practice than in other professions like banking and in medical field where they deal mainly with computers and calculations which is part of their daily lives but in some phases of legal practise artificial intelligence cannot be effective like in cases of interrogation an artificial intelligence[7] will not accurately determine a human emotion through the use of a machine which could be or not correct in analyzing behavior of a person. One thing about artificial intelligence in legal practice i.e litigation, it is always certain that litigation is a win – loose thing. So, there will still be a winner and a loser among the lawyers who do and do not uptake artificial intelligence, respectively. To, make everything come into reality, the upcoming lawyers must undergo serious artificial intelligence training and also if they want to remain relevant in the legal profession. The future is here.

CONCLUSION

A question is being raised, whether the law profession can be fundamentally replaced by artificial intelligence? From the current development stage, artificial intelligence is still in the primary stage of “weak artificial intelligence” now it is very alarmist to talk about artificial intelligence replacing human being in all-round way. Some scholars think, it nonsense to talk about robot judges now[8]. Judges needs wisdom and intelligence in handling cases brought before them, the AI can help judges in handling cases and serves judges rather than replacing the judges. Some scholars are of the opinion that, artificial intelligence should not take up the role of lawyers in many ways. This writer is of the opinion that artificial intelligence cannot be over looked as law is concerned.

RECOMMENDATION

What is expected of every being is to adapt to the new system, we intends to look for the easiest way of living. The new system here is the adoption of the artificial intelligence in the legal practice, but the question here begging for answer is whether artificial intelligence can completely replace the human being(lawyers) in legal profession? Such question may not be answer yet. It is obvious that artificial intelligence cannot completely replaced human being in the legal profession because human being have power to control everything under his power. Can people allow robot to judge them for life or death? This question shall be answered in the next ten years. To round it off, artificial intelligence is on the way, and we need to welcome it arrival and celebrate it.

You can visit the Author via; +2347013140854. or abdazeez.abiodun@gmail.com

[1] ABDULAZEEZ Abiodun, a 300level student of college of law, Afe Babalola university, Ado Ekiti.

[2] Miriam dictionary, 5th edition.

[3] https:en.m.wikipedia.org>wiki>artificial-intelligence. Accessed 30th November,2020@6:30pm.

[4] https://loyalnigerianlawyer.com/artificial-intelligence-and-the-legal-profession-by-halima-ummi-ismail.

[5] Http//.www.sunnewsonline.com>artificial-intelligence-and-legal-practice.accessed on 27th of November,2020 @10:25pm.

[6] Ibid

[7] http//.www.documentcrunch.com>artificial-int6elligence-and-the-future-of-legal-practice. Accessed on 28th of November,2020@12:00pm.

[8] http://www.researchgate.net/study-on-the-influence-of-artificial-intelligence-on-legal-profession-by-chengdu.accessed on 14th December, 2020@3:12am

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